Bears Strike Up The Bands

``Urgent. Open it Now.`` the message on the package instructed. ``This record has gotten airtime in Memphis. Please play it.``

Inside was a recording of ``Super Bowl: How Sweet It Is,`` by Tom Hackenberger.

Jonathon Brandmeier, a disc jockey at WLUP-FM, has grown accustomed to this kind of mail. Ever since the Bears` sixth victory this season, records and tapes honoring the NFC champs have been pouring into the radio station, and there is no sign that the musical tributes are about to stop.

``The only other time I could compare this to was with the Cubs in 1984,`` Brandmeier says, ``and the Bears songs far outnumber those.``

Brandmeier estimates that he has received 75-100 original songs from listeners and fans.

``They`re all about the same,`` Brandmeier explains. ``They either mention Payton or the Fridge or the Monsters of the Midway. . . . I was looking for some cheap trashy stuff, some dirt. But there wasn`t even anything bad about New England.``

Apparently, however, New Englanders haven`t had as much to sing about. Brandmeier says that he challenged a Boston radio station to a musical showdown and all they could come up with was one song about the Patriots.

Brandmeier says he regularly plays 10-15 of the songs on his program including the polka ``Chicago Cares About the Bears,`` by Eddie Blazonczyk and the Versatones, the acappella ``Monsters of the Midway`` by Stormy Weather, and the countrified ``Battle of New Orleans`` by Terry Hunt.

``If the Bears win,`` Brandmeier says, ``I`m going to splice them all together and make one three-hour song out of it. And then I`m gonna play it.``